hawley



B. -R. HA'W LEY. Drying Chamber Oonveyer.

' Patented May 17,1881.

- at either side of the conveyer.

UNrrEn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

V BENJAMIN R. HAWLEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AGNES HAWLEY, OF SAME PLACE.

DRYING-CHAMBER CONVEYER.

SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 241,541, dated May 17, 1881. Application filed July 16, isrs.

To all whom it may concern Be it knownthat I, BENJAMIN R. HAWLEY,

of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Drying-Ohamber Conveyers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved meclr anism for conveying clothing and similar articles into and from any drying-chamberwithout opening doors or moving racks, as is usual; and it consists in the novel arrangement and devices hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lyis a sectional view of a drying-chamber and the operators room adjoining, showing a side elevation of my improved conveyer. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a section of the endless chains and slats which form the reel upon which the clothes are hung, and whereby they are carried into and out of the drying-chamber. Fig. 3is an enlarged sectional view of the opening in the wall through which the reel passes from the operators room into the drying-chamher.

In said drawings, A represents the ironing room, or room occupied by the person operating the reel, and B is the heating or drying chamber, 0 being the partition between the two apartments.

K is the exhaust-port for drawing oft the damp and cold air from the chamber B, and M is the steam-coil for heating said chamber, the inlet for fresh air being located by its side.

D D D are pulleys whereon endless chains E run, there beingduplicate pulleys and chains Between the chains, and extending from one to the other, are slats or rods F, the same being placed at convenient intervals, and serving as means for supporting the clothes G or other articles to be dried, as fully appears in the drawings.

H H are large rollers or drums inserted in the partition 0, one at each of the openings therein through which the chains and slats pass into and out of the drying-chamber. These drums are pivoted in the partitions so as to revolve freely, so that the clothes passing over may not be harmed.

It is essential, of course, that the air in the drying-chamber should not escape at the openings for the reel in the partition; and I therefore, in the first place, make the drums of such length and diameter as that they will fill them as closely as circumstances and the requirements of the use to which the conveyer is put will permit.

The space lettered I, which is necessarily left over the drum for the passage of the conveyer and the articles carried by it, I close by a curtain, e or c, or by both. These curtains, or such one of them as is employed, are secured in anyproper way to the wall; but for convenience I attach them in such manner as that they can be removed whenever necessaryto be cleaned; and the fastening I use is a holding or filling strip, '5, inserted in a recess or slot in the wall, the material of the curtain being in terposed between the strip and the surface of the recess, as shown in Fig. 3, and so held. The curtains are made to depend between the chains of the conveyer sufficiently to touch the drum, and when the conveyer moves, as in Fig. 3, from left to right, one of them may be carried in by the cross-rods so as to rest on the drum, as shown in dotted lines. Whichever position it occupies, it will close the opening I with greater or less certainty. Of course two curtains upon opposite sides of the drum will do this work more positively than one.

Below the drum are two flexible strips of canvas or rubber, (1, setting up against the drum from below, and preventing the outflow of air from the drier at that point. They may be secured in the same manner as the curtainsthat is, by strips 11 pressed into appropriate slots, as illustrated.

The drums H act upon the clothes, as fully shown in the main figure of the drawings, lifting each piece and rotating with it in the direction it is moving so as to avoid injuring it.

Of the chain-supporting wheels there may be such number as is convenient and desirable to give the required amount of travel to the clothes, and to keep those moving one way from interfering with those moving the other way. I prefer, however, some such arrangement as that shown in the drawings, because the clothes may be thereby caused to pass through the driest stratum of air in the drying-chamber last, before being withdrawn from said chamber. Ialso prefer, in cases where the clothes-bearing slats are close together, that at no point should any strictly vertical direction be given to the conveyor, because that might cause goods upon one cross-slat to interfere with those on the other slat or slats next below it; and Ifind the inclined portion in the ironing-room the most convenient point for putting on and taking off the things to be dried.

The conveyer may be moved by a crank upon one of the chain-wheels-as, for instance, the one marked D. By turning said crank to the left the conveyer and its charge are moved through the opening in the partition into the lower part of the heating chamber, thence across the chamber, thence to the upper part of the chamber, and thence back into the ironing-room; and I thus accomplish the result already hinted at above-namely, avoiding contact of the dry clothes with the damp atmosphere in the drying-room, which might redampen them to some degree.

Such of the links of the chains'E as carry the slats F are provided with lateral enlargements f, wherein are openings through which the ends of the slats are passed, as clearly shown in Fig. 2. These enlargements may be made to project beyond the side of the wheels or pulleys over which the chain rides, and thus the fastening of the slats will be unaffected by the pulleys. 1 recommend, also, that the slats be round, to avoid the effect of the turn they make in a complete revolution of the carrier, so that the articles carried may not be dislodged thereby.

I claim 1. The combination, with the drying-room B and operators room A, of the endless conveyer E, passing from one room to the other through openings in the wall separating them, and large drums, H, placed directly in and mainly closing said openings, and adapted to permit the depending fabrics on the conveyer to ride over them without injury, substantially as specified.

2. The combination, with the operators room 4 5 and drying-room, of the endless carrier passing from one into the other of said rooms through openings in the wall between them, of the large drums H H, placed in said openings under the carrier, and the curtains e or e de- 50 pending from above the openings, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with the drying and operators rooms, having the endless carrier from one to the other through openings between the 5 rooms, of curtains e or e, flexible strips d, and drums H, closing such openings against the escape of heat, substantially as specified.

B. R. HAWLEY.

Witnesses MARY A. HAWLEY, AGNES HAWLEY. 

